I don’t regret the transfer. The transfer was the right thing at the time in the circumstances. The #1 priority for me was a healthy baby and mother. It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t have preferred to have no complications and stayed at home, so yup, you have it right.
But to be clear, our OB missed the birth too, and had we been in the hospital they would have thought the baby was dead too at first. They would have been using the same equipment as the doula to start with. The midwife would have had equipment on hand to get us to the hospital even faster had my wife’s labor not been so very fast (under 4 hours from start to birth), and the hospital would have c sectioned my wife at the first sign of trouble had we been there the whole time.
First world, yep. But I don’t think the biggest variable there is our hospitals. If you start looking at the stats, they are truly horrifying when broken out by race and by state - and match pretty closely to poverty statistics, obesity statistics and other general health statistics. Too many Americans don’t take care of themselves, they don’t get prenatal care, they aren’t properly insured to get prenatal care if they want it, and where programs are available to provide it to the un or under insured, running through the process takes a PhD.
If you start looking at white women giving birth in Connecticut, things aren’t bad at all. Look at Black women giving birth in Michigan and they are scary.
I’d also suspect that the U.S. schizophrenic position on abortion plays very slightly into our infant mortality rates. Its hard to even find a doctor to do a late term abortion on a fetus that is non-viable - even if you wanted to. And many couples don’t want to - they’ll see the pregnancy to term even if the baby will only live a few days or a few hours. I don’t know, but I suspect that situation is different in different parts of the world.
This was done with the approval of both our midwife and OB both of whom had been delivering babies since the 1960s. Between the two of them they had birthed hundreds of thousands of babies and had nearly 100 years of experience. Forgive me if I trust them more than you in this case.
I don’t know you, but I am going to tell you that you don’t know what you are talking about here. I don’t know if you have medical degrees, or claim to, or who you are, but what you said right there contradicts what all 5 doctors at the hospital we spoke to told us (including the head of obstetrics at Cedars Sinai hospital), as well as both our midwives who are *extremely *well respected even within the main stream medical community in Los Angeles.
I am going to unsubscribe before I say things I will regret.
Your “whatevers” and “fucking absurds” and general tone of - All you who choose home birth are irresponsible, make me think you are wanting to change minds or just want to call all of us who like to have informed choices idiots.
Seems to me humanity did just fine for 10,000 years before the first hospital. Additionally, as early as 1840’s male physicians who began to make house calls for delivering babies noted that the very presence of someone the birthing mother did not know or was comfortable with slowed, and even stopped the labor process more often than not. Tell me, what’s natural about giving birth in a hospital? You do know we are animals right?
Again, what does the baby gain from this? Obviously you get to stick it to “the system”, but of what benefit is it to the baby to be born away from medicine, equipment, and licensed professionals who went to school for decades before they got their first real check?
John, this is a tough question that has - in our case - spiritual connotations that I don’t really like to chat about on open boards, because it leaves the doors open to criticism of spiritual beliefs and that is generally never a good thing. What I will say, is that the mind\body connection between mother and child is very strong, and some believe that the chemical cocktails floating around the mother and baby’s brains at the time of birth are extremely powerful and are the foundation of an inner spiritual connection between mother and baby. Again I hesitate to talk too much about it because many simply call that kind of thing “foo-foo talk”. Yes, I’ve heard that before.
And with the hostility this thread is bringing up I don’t want to open too many more cans of worms!
But most of what we do in regards to health isn’t natural. Going to a dentist for a cavity, getting vaccinations, tetanus shots, hand washing, having protected sex – all unnatural.
True, and I was being quasi-facetious - I do believe hospitals save lives. But the entire midwifery business has been around far longer than physicians and hospitals. And they did pretty good…human population is still growing by leaps and bounds.
Wow. I’m kind of shocked at the antipathy towards home birth. It’s not the same as abusing your baby, people. (And I would never consider a home birth myself – but I have extremely educated friends who have done so, and are big proponents.)
At the same time, Phlosphr, I do have to speak out against your idea that a home birth promotes bonding. I mean, sure, maybe it might a little bit, but this kind of thing is what had me crying for hours because I had to give my baby formula, because I had gotten this idea that, “Oh, you MUST do breastfeeding because you BOND with the baby better!” (I then went on to breastfeed her for a year, after giving her formula for three days, and it didn’t seem to affect our bonding experience either way.)
I called my sister in tears (she’s a pediatrician) at the time and accused myself of being a horrible mom for giving my baby FORMULA, oh the horror!! and said to her, “It’s not natural to give a baby formula!” She said, “Yeah… well… it’s natural to have a fairly high infant mortality rate; I don’t think nature is all it’s cracked up to be. Sure, your baby needs more food than you can produce right now, and that’s sad, but isn’t it nice that you have the option of technological advances?”
I was trying to be discreet about personal beliefs…and what I am talking about is not just home birth, thousands of mothers watch their babies being born in hospitals and birthing centers and are able to hold them right away. I have a lot of compassion for when that is not able to happen.
Animals whose unassisted maternal death rate in childbirth is 1 in 100.
Cattle breeders wouldn’t take those odds.
Knowledgable assistance in childbirth is virtually required of the human animal.
This is NOT an argument against midwives but the whole “we’re animals so childbirth is no big whoop!” is bullshit. Actually, there are few things more natural to the human animal than using technology and social networks to assist in childbirth. Doing that in a hospital with a doctor is no more or less natural than doing it at home with a midwife. One could argue that going to a place of seclusion, away from one’s usual sleeping place, is the far more natural and animalistic act.